CNN’s Cuomo Presses W.H. Spox: Can You Beat ISIS Without Boots on the Ground?

CNN’s Cuomo Presses WH Spox: Can You Beat ISIS Without Boots on the Ground? (Mediaite)

New Day host Chris Cuomo pressed Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken Thursday morning over whether the White House really thought it could defeat ISIS without boots on the ground in Iraq.

“Chris, we’re not going to repeat what happened a decade ago,” Blinken said. “You don’t need to solve this problem by putting 150,000 Americans on the ground and getting them stuck there for a decade.”

“But I didn’t say 150,000,” Cuomo said. “I said any. …It’s difficult to understand how [the roughly 1,000 military advisors] are there and there’s fighting going on around you and you’re not part of it. If you want to be clear, shouldn’t the clear truth be Americans may well wind up fighting on that ground again? …How are you going to beat ISIS if you don’t have the best forces in the world fighting?”